Dreaming of Yolei
by Frost Deejn
Summary: Ken has a strange dream about the girl he loves, as well as a dire threat to the digital world, friends acting strange, and talking dinosaurs.


Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, I did not create Digimon, and I am making no money off Digimon.

Dreaming of Yolei  


"It's no use!" Ken exclaimed in frustration. "No matter what I try, I just can't concentrate on anything. Everything reminds me of her."

Wormmon sighed. "Why don't you just call her and get it over with?" Though he was concerned that if Ken had a serious girlfriend it would take away from the time he spent with him, Wormmon wanted Ken to be happy...and stop whining.

"I can't," Ken said.

"Why not?"

"I don't know; I just can't. It's not like she'd go out with me, anyway."

"You'll never know until you ask her," Wormmon pointed out.

"I just don't know how, Wormmon. I'm not good at expressing my feelings like she is. I should just forget about it. I don't deserve her. I know I'll never be completely happy without her, so I should just resign myself to never being completely happy."

Wormmon rolled his eyes. He'd heard that one before.

It had started slowly, with Ken making a seemingly innocuous comment or two, but it steadily worsened until every single night Wormmon had to hear Ken talk about how great she was and how much he didn't deserve her for at least ten minutes.

Ken climbed into bed. Before turning off the lamp, he took out a small notebook and a pen.

_Luminous smile-_

_Like sunrise on spring gardens-_

_Melting winter's heart._

He closed the notebook, tossed it on his nightstand, and turned off the light.

Ken fell asleep quickly. He dreamed that he went to the digiworld. He found T.K., Patamon, and Cody sitting on a fallen log in a forest.

"Hello, Ken," said Cody.

Ken sat beside them, not thinking it the least bit strange that he was still in his pajamas. "Where are the others?" he inquired

"What others?" T.K. asked in confusion.

"You know. Davis and the rest."

Patamon flew to T.K.'s head. "Sorry, we don't know what you're talking about. There's no one here but us." He looked down at his partner. "Has Ken gone crazy?"

T.K. rolled his eyes. "I don't know where the others are. All I know is they're not here. Or at least I think they're not here. For all I know, they could be. In fact, I'm not really here myself." He stood and began walking away. "I got a job in Hollywood. I'm leaving forever. Later."

"Later," Cody called after him.

"T.K. and Patamon are acting kind of strange today," Ken commented.

"Yes," Cody agreed. "Davis couldn't come. Kari's baking cookies, and Yolei went to the mall, I think."

"Thanks. I think I'll try to find her. I've been wanting to talk to her. By the way, where's Armadillomon?"

"He and the other digimon are having a barbeque. I'm about to go there myself. Want to join me?"

"Okay," said Ken, who was feeling hungry.

They walked through the woods until they came to a picnic table behind an elegant marble gazebo. Veemon, Armadillomon, Tentomon, Agumon, and Palmon were busy eating watermelon and hamburgers. Davis sat at the picnic table. He was sipping Champaign and wearing a monocle. There was a chess set on the table in front of him.

"Salutations, good gentlemen," Davis greeted them. "Would either of you care to join me in a game of chess?"

"I'd love to," Ken volunteered. "Am I black or white?"

"Neither," Davis droned in a snobbish voice. "The options are cyan and magenta. You will be magenta." He began setting up the pieces. "Presuming the chromatype of the opposing combatants without a prior visual confirmation is veritably fallacious."

They began playing, moving the chess pieces impossibly quickly.

Suddenly the game froze. Davis asked, "Have you fully extrapolated the ramifications of endangering my knight with your rook?"

Before Ken could answer, they were interrupted by an explosion that blew the pieces off the board.

Gatomon—the apparent instigator of the explosion—and Wormmon snuck forward dramatically, like spies in a movie. They stood back-to-back, brandishing small guns.

"We know you have the coordinates," Wormmon declared.

"Tell us what you know," Gatomon added, "or the girl gets it!"

"What girl?" Ken asked.

Gotomon looked at Wormmon incredulously. "You _forgot _the girl?"

"I thought you brought her."

Davis jumped up in a rage. "Why you meddlesome, insufferable, insidious, limicolous vermiforms!"

"Hey!" Gatomon huffed, insulted.

"You thoroughly and thoughtlessly disrupted my game of chess! I can not tolerate this degree of lunacy!" Davis stormed off.

"He seems unhappy," Gatomon noted. "Once again, I would prescribe catnip."

"Sorry to disturb you," Wormmon apologized, "but strange things have been going on around here. You should be careful."

With that, he and Gatomon, humming their spy theme song, slipped into the forest.

Armadillomon ambled over. "Don't mind them. They're just being silly. Nothing is going on that you should be worried about. Hey, Veemon, you want to play chess?"

"Certainly!" Veemon enthusiastically began setting up the chess board.

"I just have one question," said Ken. "Actually, I have two questions: where is Hawkmon?"

"Right over there." Veemon pointed.

"That's not Hawkmon."

"I am Hawkmon," Halsemon asserted confidently.

"Okay," Ken conceded, "but where is Yolei?"

"She's shopping with Mimi," answered Palmon.

"Okay, thanks." Ken walked into the woods. He found a sign that said there were 2.9 digikilometers to the Digiworld Megamall. He hadn't gone far when he was stopped by none other than Arukenimon.

"You can't go that way, Ken," she said in a mysterious, conspiratorial whisper.

"Why not?"

"Consult the dinomon." She handed him a pamphlet and scurried away.

Ken opened the pamphlet, which had large black letters written in yellow bubbles, like an advertisement. "'Do you want to save the world?'" he read. "'Do you want to save the girl?' 'Then first you have to save yourself.' 'Run.' 'Run now!'"

Ken shrugged and started running.

"Help! Save me!"

Ken followed the sound of the screaming. A baby digimon sat on the path.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"They're coming. They're coming and coming!"

"What's coming?"

"No time to explain!" said the panicked digimon. "Just get me out of here!"

Ken picked it up and ran.

A thrumming began deep in the ground, quickly escalating to a pounding. Ken ran as fast as he could. He saw a large tree ahead, shoved the pamphlet into his pajama pocket, and climbed it one-handed. When he thought he was high enough, he stopped and held on. The roar became an earthquake. High-pitched cries mixed with the pounding of the stampede. Ken opened his eyes. Apatomon, hundreds of apatomon, crashed through the trees, running faster than those giant, lumbering dinosaur-like digimon should have been able to. The stampede finally died down; Ken jumped from his perch and landed in front of one of them. It was moving too fast to stop, and ended up pinning Ken to a tree.

"Great," Ken muttered. "Normal people dream about dinosaurs; I dream about dinomon."

The dinomon backed up and looked at him.

"What's going on here?" Ken asked. "What are you running from?"

The dinomon wagged its head. "Aliens," it said. "Aliens are invading the digital world."

"Why?" Ken questioned.

"I don't know," the dinomon claimed. "They didn't say."

Ken started walking in the direction the dinomon had come from. "I'll get to the bottom of this," he resolved. He emerged from the woods in a clearing where the grass and nearby trees were singed. He stooped to examine some strange indentations in the ground. When he looked up, a light in the sky caught his attention. It moved closer, then a light shot from it, pinning him where he stood. The UFO landed directly in front of him. A door opened, a ramp extended, and out came...

"Dinomon!" Ken exclaimed.

"No, I'm Dinoalimon."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Innocent mistake."

Ken asked why aliens were invading the digiworld.

"I don't know. I'm just following orders."

"Then take me to your leader," Ken said.

"Right this way." The dinoalimon walked back into the UFO. Ken followed.

They entered a room with a silver column in the middle. It turned, revealing an opening containing a red cushion, where the alien queen sat.

"Kari?" Ken gasped.

"That's right," she replied, "but that's not my real name. My name is Rlashrikvol, and I am the leader of an alien species who have taken an interest in the digital world. Gatomon began to suspect, and I believe she now has your digimon on her side, as well. But neither they nor anyone else can foil my designs."

"And what are your designs?"

The alien queen regarded him, then answered. "Using our superior technology, we will create and market products and services so quickly and inexpensively that digimon will not be able to resist. Digimoney will sift into our hands, the entire digimarket will become dependent on us, the digistockmarket will be obsolete, and then, when they least expect it, we'll _leave._"

Ken gasped. "That's the evilest thing I've ever heard. And I used to entertain myself by thinking of the evilest things I could come up with and finding ways to make them even eviler."

"And then," she continued, "we'll do the same thing with Earth."

"But why?" Ken whimpered.

"No reason. We just think it would be kind of fun."

Ken couldn't argue without sounding hypocritical, so he just said, "You'll never get away with this. I'll stop you. Or my friends, if I can't."

"No, I'm afraid not. You will die. Slowly and painfully." She touched a button and the floor dropped from under Ken's feet.

He plummeted down, down through darkness, darkness that seemed to never end. Then he hit a slide that took him a short distance to a well-lit room. He stood and looked around.

"_Ting_."

At the sound of the triangle, thousands of small, colorful confections converged on him. Icecream, cake, cotton candy, popcorn, pizza, doughnuts, chips, rice crispy treats...and they were all trying to eat him. They weren't doing very well, since they didn't have mouths. It mostly just tickled.

"Ow." The sharp corner of a piece of peanut brittle drew some blood. The junk food kept coming, and it was really, really starting to tickle. This would, indeed, be a slow and painful death.

Right when he was about to lose hope, dinoalimon burst through a door. Fighting music played as the digimon ate each and every killer snack.

"Thanks, Dinoalimon!" Ken cried joyfully.

"You're welcome. But I'm not Dinoalimon anymore; now I'm Dinodalimon. I've digivolved."

"But you don't look different."

"I digivolved on the inside."

"Oh," Ken said. "Okay, what should I do now?"

"Hmm..." Digidinodalimon considered. "I don't know. Why don't you check the pamphlet?"

Ken took the folded paper from his pocket.

"What does it say?"

Ken looked up. "It says 'Beware the underground squid tentacles.'"

At that moment, giant squid tentacles burst from the ground and flailed around randomly.

"We should probably get out of here," Ken suggested.

"Good idea."

They darted through the field of tentacles. One hit Skulldigidinodalimon, but he picked himself up and continued on his way. The two sprinted onto a parking lot that the tentacles couldn't break through.

"This is the mall, where I was trying to go," Ken said when he caught his breath. "I'll see you later, Metalskulldigidinodalimon."

"Maybe." The digimon waved goodbye.

When Ken entered the mall, Mimi, Sora, Joe, and Tai ran toward him.

"Hey Ken! Look at my new dress!" Mimi pulled out a shiny green dress.

"It's beautiful," Ken said.

"Look at my new dress." Sora pulled out a dark purple and orange evening gown.

"Nice..." Ken said uncertainly, wondering since when Sora wore dresses.

"That's nothing. Look at mine." Joe pulled out a white dress with black flowers.

"Did you lose a bet?" Ken joked.

"And check this out." Tai produced a bright yellow dress with black lace and a matching hat.

Ken said nothing. He turned to Mimi. "I heard you were shopping with Yolei. Where is she?"

"She never showed up," Mimi replied. "Rumor has it, she's lost in the forest."

"You should find her. I've heard my sister's an evil alien queen trying to take over the digiworld," Tai told him. "It could get ugly."

"And I heard Megametalskulldigidinodalimon is on the loose," added Sora.

"I'm sure she'll be alright," Joe said dismissively.

"Still," Ken slowly began to retreat, "I want to talk to her, so..."

"Are you sure about that?" Mimi asked. "She's so garrulous!"

"Yeah," Ken smiled (mostly because he was almost to the door). "That's one of the things I like about her." He exited as casually as possible, then broke into a run until he reached the forest.

The light was turning to dull gold as the Sun dipped toward the horizon. The green woods took on a timeless quality, like a painting. It would soon be dark. Ken didn't know where to go next, so he checked the pamphlet. It was blank, so he asked, "Where can I find Yolei?"

"Why would you want to?" The words bloomed on the paper. "Forget about her. You have me."

"What!"

"I love you, sweetheart," it said. "I mean, come on! I've already saved your life twice today. Do you think anyone else would have done that?"

Ken stared incredulously. "But you're just a piece of paper."

"But I'm _your_ piece of paper. Can't you see that? We're meant for each other!"

"This is the weirdest dream I've ever had," Ken finally decided.

"I love you, Ken. I can't live without you. Marry me! Forget that loud-mouthed nerd."

"Do _not_ insult Yolei!" Ken surprised himself with an angry outburst. "I'm sorry, I appreciate how much you've done for me," he sounded neither appreciative nor sorry, "but we hardly know each other. It would never work. Get over it. Find yourself a nice instruction booklet or something." He crumpled up and tossed away the pamphlet, regretting only that he was littering.

He wandered aimlessly through the woods until he came to a bridge. It was falling apart, with only a few cross boards still in place, so Ken was watching his step too closely to see someone right in front of him until they almost collided.

"Hello Ken."

"Izzy! What are you doing here?"

"Being a product of your imagination, I wouldn't know," he answered. "All I can tell you is what you already know, but won't tell yourself."

"How cliché," Ken mumbled. "So, can you tell me what this dream means?"

Izzy took on the air of a professor giving a lecture. "Some dreams might mean something, and some dreams are just a bunch of weird crazy nonsense."

"And this dream would be the latter?"

"This could be a case study in the latter," Izzy confirmed. "But, really, who's to say what a 'normal' dream is? Is any dream really 'normal'?"

"I would say my normal dreams are nightmares," Ken said. "But they've been gradually replaced by dreams involving Yolei, milkshakes, and panoramic views."

"Speaking of Yolei, she's lost in the woods."

"I know. What I want to know is how do I find her?"

"You have to get lost yourself." Izzy then disappeared.

Ken became entranced by the forest's beauty as he wandered, losing his way on purpose. Before long, he had no idea where he was. The sky was the burning blue of low candlefire when he came upon Yolei, standing in a meadow. She wore a flowing silk gown that exactly matched the sky.

"I've been waiting for you," Yolei said in a musical whisper. "I've been waiting and waiting."

Ken heard music coming from somewhere.

"Aren't you going to ask me to dance?" she whispered.

He stepped into the meadow and took Yolei's hand. She smiled charmingly and they began to dance. She twirled around and ended up wrapped in Ken's arms. She leaned back, brushing her lips over his cheek, and whispered, "Nice P.J.s."

Suddenly, from the shadow of the trees came a familiar maniacal laugh.

"The Digimon Emperor!" Yolei gasped.

"Was my laugh really that annoying?" Ken wondered aloud.

The emperor stepped out of the shadows. "Hello, self," the evil Ken cackled. "It is truly amusing to see how far I've come. Just think, when you first met her you wanted to kill this girl. How very amusing."

"I won't let you hurt her!" Ken hissed through his teeth.

The emperor laughed again. "Oh, but don't you see? I already have hurt her. And I didn't even lift a finger." He took a menacing step forward. "It's ingenious, really. You see, everyone I love gets hurt..." He flashed his most diabolical grin. "And I love her!"

"NOOOOOO!" Ken screamed.

He was no longer in the woods at night. He was now in the desert at noon. Yolei's silk dress had changed to the azure blue of the desert sky. He held her in his arms. She was limp and pale; he knew she was dying. Besides the two of them, there was no one in sight.

"Don't die, Yolei. I don't think I could take it, even in a dream."

"Well, I'd really like to not die," she replied, "but it seems to be a bit out of my hands."

"Anything I can do to help?" Ken asked desperately.

She smiled. "I could use a chocolate mousse, banana cream pie, and vanilla milkshake."

"Fresh out," Ken joked, managing a pathetic smile.

"In that case," she continued jokingly, "just don't be sad for me when I'm gone. Forget all about me. I promise I won't mind."

"You're silly," Ken informed her.

"You've just had enough sadness for one lifetime. In fact, you've had enough sadness for two lifetimes." Her smile faded and she stared at him thoughtfully.

"I love you too much," he whispered fondly, tears blurring his vision.

As though taking pity on him, Yolei divulged a secret. "Actually, there is something you should know. My life isn't in my hands; it's in yours."

"What are you talking about?"

"You have two choices," she explained, "hold onto me or let me go. One will save me, the other will kill me."

"But which is it?"

"I don't know," she insisted. "You must choose. You must. There are only two options. You're smart, Ken: figure it out."

Ken thought. "I'm holding you now, and you're dying, so maybe I should let you go. On the other hand, you're still alive, so maybe I'm doing the right thing now and letting you go will kill you." He gazed at her, heart aching.

Ken walked through a beautiful garden, overflowing with flowers. He walked through it without seeing it.

Izzy ran up to him. "Hello, Ken."

"Hi, Izzy," he muttered.

"Did you find Yolei?"

"I found her. And I killed her."

"What did you do?" Izzy asked without sounding saddened or angry.

"I don't remember, but I know she's dead."

After a silent moment, Izzy said sympathetically, "You can't blame yourself, you know."

"Then who can I blame? It's my fault. There's no way around it. But it doesn't matter. I don't care anymore. She's gone. That's all that matters." He absent-mindedly plucked a pink flower that was growing from a wall. "Izzy, this is the stupidest dream I've ever had. I've had nightmares that were more fun than this. Why did she have to die? I mean...why did I have to dream about her dying? Why can't I just wake up and forget this awful dream?"

"Do you really want to forget?" Izzy asked.

Ken considered for a moment. "Yes."

"But maybe there's something you have to realize, some decision you have to make, something you have to learn."

"Hm." He pondered. "Everyone's acting strange. I think Dinomon probably represents something. Yolei..." he took a deep breath. "..My love for her killed her. It doesn't matter, though, you know. I knew it wouldn't work. No, you were right before: this dream is just crazy." He saw a wisteria vine dripping with flowers the exact color of Yolei's hair. He reached out to pick some.

"Make a wish, Ken," Izzy said suddenly.

"That's kind of pointless," Ken said. Izzy gave him a look. "Okay," Ken sighed. "I wish this dream would have a happy ending." He grabbed the flowers and gave them a tug.

"Ah!"

Ken turned in shock. The cluster of flowers had become a hand. His eyes followed it to a silk sleeve the color of wisteria leaves, and above this was a pretty bespectacled face framed with long, dark strawberry-blond hair.

"Yolei!"

With the hand Ken didn't have a hold of, she slapped him hard. "You jerk! How dare you let go of me?"

He was too happy to mind the pain. "I let go of you?"

"Yes, you let go of me and I died. You were _supposed_ to hold on."

"I'm so sorry. Will you forgive me?"

"Of course I'll forgive you," she said. "Just don't do it again, deal?"

"Deal." He smiled happily. He helped her step to the ground, then put the pink flower he was carrying into her hair.

Everyone was now in the garden. Matt was playing a guitar and singing on the stage that had suddenly appeared there. Mimi, Sora, Tai, and Joe were wearing their new dresses. T.K. and Davis were playing soccer. Cody was sitting in a circle with all of their digimon playing a card game.

Kari walked up to Ken. "Sorry about that trying-to-take-over-the-world thing. I guess the better we are, the more evil we can become, huh? And the other way around. I'm just glad Metamegametalskulldigidinodalimon talked some sense into me."

The aforementioned digimon came up behind them. It still didn't look any different from the first time Ken saw it.

"Have you figured it out yet, Ken?" Metamegametalskulldigidinodalimon inquired.

"Yes," Ken answered. "You're human." He turned to Yolei. "Now that you're life's not in my hands, would you like to have dinner sometime?"

"Yes, but I haven't even had breakfast yet. Oh, you mean with you? Sure. In the meantime, would you like to kiss me?"

"Well, yes, but..."

"But what?"

"I've never kissed you in my dreams before."

"There's a first time for everything, isn't there?" she pointed out.

"Yes."

"Okay, then." She closed her eyes, puckered, and waited.

"Wake up."

"What?" The dream started to fade. Ken struggled to keep it. "No, no, no...Not now. Yolei!"

"Oh, so now you're talking about her in your sleep?"

Ken blinked at Wormmon. His alarm clock was beeping and starting to sound angry.

"It's about time," Wormmon said.

"I just had the craziest dream," Ken said. He pushed himself out of bed. "Now I know what I have to do. I've got to call her." He went straight to the phone.

Wormmon followed him. "That's the spirit! What are you going to say?"

Ken froze. He hadn't thought that far ahead. What would he say? 'Hello, how are you, I just had the craziest dream about you'? 'Good morning. Sleep well? Want to go have dinner with me sometime?' It all sounded ridiculous.

_"If you'd like to make a call, please­…_"

Ken hung up the phone, defeated. "What was I thinking? I have to get ready for school or I'll be late. It was just a dream, anyway."


End file.
